New Grey Owner With Food Questions

[Guest Comanche]

Hi! I searched through the whole food forum here and found some good information, but I still have a couple of questions I'd like to get your opinions on.

 

We just adopted a 4 year old grey a week ago who retired from racing September 30. He's a 75lb male and the vet said he could stand to gain a little weight as all of his ribs are visible. He was being fed 4 cups of Puriina Pro Plan Chicken per day while being fostered and we have continued with that feeding plan.

 

This is our first grey, and all of the dogs we've had before were free-fed and maintained healthy weights so it's our first experience feeding on a schedule. I've been doing 2 cups in the am around 0800 and the other 2 cups in the evening around 6pm to time with our morning and evening meals. However, mid-afternoon around 3-4 he will start pacing near his food bowl, nudging and checking it for food, pace the house, check the bowl again as if he is hungry. The last couple of days I've given him his evening meal at that time but then the same behavior occurs closer to bedtime around 9 pm and I have given in and given him another scant cup of food. He's currently getting small treats when he pees or poos outside, to reinforce that behavior (we had a lot of accidents inside until today) so not a ton of extra calories there and we are a moderately active family. The question is then, is he getting enough food? Based on the threads I've read here it seems I'm overfeeding him but I feel like I'm underfeeding.

 

Second, the Purina Pro Plan is what he was being fed so we stuck with it to start. He does have some incredibly potent gas. We fed Iams and Diamond with our other dogs and never had the gas issues. Is this a grey thing or is this a food thing?

 

 

[Hawthorn]

Sounds like he needs three meals a day. 10 hours is a long time to go without food isn't it. I'd give him another cup of kibble at lunchtime and possibly also another half cup at bedtime too. I also wouldn't worry at all about how much others are feeding their dogs. If your dog is underweight it's not going to hurt to give him another cup of kibble and you can always cut down later on if he starts to get too fat. I used to feed my greyhounds four meals a day.

Edited November 26, 2016 by Hawthorn

[smurfette]

I may be a little strange but I always keep a small amount of kibble in my boys' dishes. They like to snack on them during the day. When Paddy arrived he devoured the kibble and I added new. After 2 or 3 days he learned that there will always be some food for him and started to eat only when he was hungry.

Now I put kibble into the dishes in the morning and in the evening prepare a nice meal of raw meat, vegetables, oil etc.

Everyone is healthy and happy.

[krissy]

If your dog is underweight it's not going to hurt to give him another cup of kibble and you can always cut down later on if he starts to get too fat. I used to feed my greyhounds four meals a day.

 

Assuming the dog really is underweight. The majority of the time when I'm told a dog is "always hungry" the dog is fine or is already overweight. Unless the dog is truly underweight I wouldn't add more food. I'd just split what he's already getting into more meals. Or put some into a frozen Kong while you're away at work.

 

I think it's also important to differentiate between "always wants more food" and "always hungry". My dogs would never turn down any food ever, no matter if they just ate dinner. They are not hungry, but they are chow hounds. Kind of the same way I end up looking in the fridge or cupboards at every commercial break wanting a snack and then realizing I'm not hungry!

[Hawthorn]

If all his ribs are showing he is underweight.

[lukasmom]

I have always free feed with my three greys.

Look into Olewo carrots for the gas and it will help with the poops. I give my boys their carrots as a meal around 4pm and they love it.

 

Good luck with your new hound. You will get lots of good advice here.

[cleptogrey]

we just changed over to purina pro plan, large dog/chicken variety since non of the other foods fed to my pups could not be purchased while they stayed at my daughter's house for 5 weeks. both of my dogs had lost a ton of weight just prior to our trip and looked awful. annie was diagnosed with chronic colitis and felix was on low fat food for pancretitis. both did really well filling out on the pro plan, but it took a good 5 weeks. they seem to love the stuff, scarf it up when it's served. we are feeding 3 meals a day since they have been circling the food bowl and ringing bells to eat. the fat content is slightly lower than many foods which works for the sensitive guts of these greyhounds.

 

finally a food that we don't need to add owelo carrots or yams or rice or pasta or pumpkin to!!!! reduced poops, no gas and reasonably priced. it seems as if these fine tuned hounds do much better with a moderate food. you will also hear the praises of IAMS, the green bag here on GT.

Edited November 26, 2016 by cleptogrey

[krissy]

If all his ribs are showing he is underweight.

 

This isn't necessarily true. And I realize you're going off the information you were given by the OP, but since a lot of people use this forum for information, I'm just going to expand a little on my statement.

 

Summit

 

 

Kili

 

 

 

 

 

Kenna

 

Brindle is hard to photograph, but I can assure you that most of Kenna's ribs are slightly visible as well.

 

None of these dogs are underweight, and yet most of their ribs show. Kili actually got a bit chubby back during the summer. I upped Summit's food because he's starting to have a little more trouble keeping weight on, and I was unconsciously giving the same amount to Kili. All but her back 3 ribs disappeared (on the scale, the difference was about 1 kg). I immediately cut her back to her regular intake, and we're back to a hint of all but the very first few ribs showing (and that's not a consequence of "fat" coverage, but of muscle because those first ribs lie under the shoulder muscles). Just because most of a greyhound's ribs are showing does not automatically mean they are in fact underweight. They could be underweight, or they could actually be conditioned. If the OP's dog just retired from racing a few months ago then it is possible the dog is just conditioned and not actually underweight. Not everyone is familiar with greyhounds and so many people think they're underweight when they're actually just right, veterinary professionals included. If the dog really is underweight then by all means, the owner should feed it more. My experience as a vet is that I see far more dogs that are thought to be underweight, than dogs that actually are underweight, so I want to make sure the OP has a bit of food for thought in the other direction when assessing their situation. I don't think there's any harm in that.

 

ETA: And I don't necessarily think that every pet greyhound should have a bunch of ribs showing. I recognize a lot of pets are happy, healthy couch potatoes. I'm just saying that depending on the fitness and condition of the dog, it's not automatically an indication of being underweight.

Edited November 27, 2016 by krissy

[XTRAWLD]

I free fed Kasey until Ryder showed up since Ryder was a chow hound. I was cinvinced he would never have enough if left to be free fed. With that said Kasey was never big on food, and would often leave a portion of his kibble when he was meal time and Ry would always go over and finish it off. It was not until we switched to raw that Kasey never turned his nose up to food and Ryder didn't have anything but the scraps to lick. Kasey, the dog that was always lean finally picked up some pounds with being fed raw. Stinky gas also went away.

 

Also, if you aren't already, give him a bedtime cookie or two to tide him over so he might not be so famished in the am.

[GreyTzu]

 

This isn't necessarily true. And I realize you're going off the information you were given by the OP, but since a lot of people use this forum for information, I'm just going to expand a little on my statement.

 

Summit

 

 

Kili

 

 

 

 

 

Kenna

 

Brindle is hard to photograph, but I can assure you that most of Kenna's ribs are slightly visible as well.

 

None of these dogs are underweight, and yet most of their ribs show. Kili actually got a bit chubby back during the summer. I upped Summit's food because he's starting to have a little more trouble keeping weight on, and I was unconsciously giving the same amount to Kili. All but her back 3 ribs disappeared (on the scale, the difference was about 1 kg). I immediately cut her back to her regular intake, and we're back to a hint of all but the very first few ribs showing (and that's not a consequence of "fat" coverage, but of muscle because those first ribs lie under the shoulder muscles). Just because most of a greyhound's ribs are showing does not automatically mean they are in fact underweight. They could be underweight, or they could actually be conditioned. If the OP's dog just retired from racing a few months ago then it is possible the dog is just conditioned and not actually underweight. Not everyone is familiar with greyhounds and so many people think they're underweight when they're actually just right, veterinary professionals included. If the dog really is underweight then by all means, the owner should feed it more. My experience as a vet is that I see far more dogs that are thought to be underweight, than dogs that actually are underweight, so I want to make sure the OP has a bit of food for thought in the other direction when assessing their situation. I don't think there's any harm in that.

 

ETA: And I don't necessarily think that every pet greyhound should have a bunch of ribs showing. I recognize a lot of pets are happy, healthy couch potatoes. I'm just saying that depending on the fitness and condition of the dog, it's not automatically an indication of being underweight.

 

Exactly! Greyhounds should have the last two or three rids visible. A good rule of thumb is 5ish pounds above racing weight. And visible does not mean you can see the ribs when you squint and ** your head to the left as the greyhound is sleeping on the floor. Greyhounds, actually all dogs, do NOT need to be "Labby" fat, unless there is a true medical issue, such as the dog is on chemo or similar issues.

 

My dogs get all the free-range cats that they catch when I let them off their tow chains to run the neighborhood for exercise.

 

Actually, they eat once a day in the afternoon and they get a treat when they come in from a potty trip on the yard. Danny is about 70 lbs. and he get 2 cups a day and the girls about about 65 lbs. and they get about 1 1/4 cups a day. Begging, whining, or pacing the feed bowl does not get our dogs anything.

[Hubcitypam]

The old school ideal was the last three ribs need to show. Racing weight plus a set number of pounds is inexact science as 5 pounds on a female that raced at sixty something is different than 5 pounds on a big boy that raced at 84 in terms of percentage of body weight. In addition, some kennels run their dogs far leaner than others.

Edited November 28, 2016 by Hubcitypam

[JohnF]

What handsome dogs!

 

Yes, you can afford to put a little more weight on them if they have an active lifestyle.

 

What I've done is to get a medium bag of really good quality kibble like Acana, Orijen, or the Canagan we have here in the UK and feed it as a DRY treat to to simulaate a mid-day meal or later evening treat. When they scrunch it up they think they've eaten better. 1/4 of a cup twice is plenty. 3/4 of the dog's food is a perfectly OK mid-range chicken-based kibble. I'll top it occasionally with real meat that is nearing it's use-by date. Yes... that means sometimes she gets to share half a sirloin steak, but withiout the seasoning!

 

Even though the cost is scary, you could go entirely onto a good kibble. Certainly you'll end up feeding a lot less in bulk, but it will still cost about 15% more.

My dog has digestive issues and I remember my vet saying to me: Once you find the right food, even if it's a dear one, you'll end up spending much less with me!

[Guest Jordan33]

When I first got Adrien she needed to gain weight for the same reason. The vet suggested I feed her three times a day. I did that for about a week and then she was fine. She actually stops eating when she's full. :-)

 

I feed her a mix of Honest Kitchen's wet food and Wysong's dry kibble, giving her a variety of each and changing up the flavors frequently. She seems to like it and does well on it.

[GeorgeofNE]

Every dog I have ever met will act like it's hungry ALL THE TIME.

 

If you wish to cater to his every whim, by all means, feed him three or four times a day. If you want to free feed, no reason you shouldn't. If you want to stick to a schedule and feed him twice a day like he is use to, then do that!

 

As for the gas, he might be a gassy dog in general, or it could be the food. If you decide to make a change, most people suggest doing it slowly.

[Guest makalataylor]

Every dog I have ever met will act like it's hungry ALL THE TIME.

 

If you wish to cater to his every whim, by all means, feed him three or four times a day. If you want to free feed, no reason you shouldn't. If you want to stick to a schedule and feed him twice a day like he is use to, then do that!

 

As for the gas, he might be a gassy dog in general, or it could be the food. If you decide to make a change, most people suggest doing it slowly.

True that a lot of dogs will always act hungry, haha. I didn't realize my husband fed Molly breakfast the other morning, and she got fed again by me an hour later and she acted like she was starving =)